A good measurement for "quality of gay life style" in a metropolitan
area is incidences of entrapment. When gay men are actively targeted for
"special attention" by the local police and prosecutors, you can be sure you
do not have a "gay friendly" atmosphere.

Undercover police entrapment operations are the sort of abuse that local
civil rights ordinances are intended to eliminate. When entrapment is
on-going, it is unusual to find a commitment to human rights, diversity,
good community-police relations, domestic partnership benefits, and other
factors that affect EVERYONE's quality of life.

Some people wonder why they should care about entrapment cases. They
never "cruise" and they see reports claiming that these cases are about
"public sex." They feel that people who have "public sex" deserve to be
prosecuted. A recent local survey revealed, in contrast, that nearly a
quarter of the openly gay men responding had used parks, bookstores and
other usual "cruising" venues to find a mutually interested adult sex
partner at some point in their life.

Although a few cases may actually involve "public sex," others involve
sex that is actually "private," but that occurs in a "public place." Even
more cases involve men whose only "conduct" has been verbal. An undercover
cop acts and talks like a gay man interested in going to a private place for
a non-commercial sexual encounter. The gay man responds favorably, confirms
his interest, and is then arrested. This constitutes being arrested for
BEING gay.

Undercover anti-sex operations invite police corruption, and are rife
with misconduct. Police typically "embellish" their reports to make sure
the defendant gets convicted of something.

There is a "war on sex" going on in Michigan, including Detroit. This
could be because the new police chief is the former head of "vice"
operations. Every sexually active single person is at risk, but gay men are
objects of "special attention" from both the Detroit Police and the City Law
Department.

They are attacking EVERY citizens right to talk about sex or to seek
mutually compatible sexual partners. Both gay and straight men are being
arrested for confirming that they have a sexual interest in another,
apparently mutually-consenting adult.

An Inkster undercover sex sting operations has criminalized more than
1600 (mostly straight) people over the past five years. Many complain that
they were arrested for mere presence when others committed some arguably
illegal act. Others confirm that they were arrested for verbal remarks. So
far, the suburban community has raked-in more than $1.6 million.

Likewise, the gay community is being financially raped by prosecutors
extorting guilty pleas with threats of felony prosecutions, probation
supervision fees, impoundment of cars and other heavy-handed punishments.
Dozens of men have been enticed, entrapped, coerced, stigmatized and
exploited by their own government. The Detroit Police have sent covert cops
into gay bars.

The actions of our local governments convey the attitude that gay men
are detestable and loathsome. We are worthy objects of "anti-vice"
projects. These attitudes readily extend to lesbians, bisexuals and
transgender persons. Our sexual conduct is "immoral," which makes it
acceptable to arrest and prosecute us.

Such attitudes significantly contribute to the violence and
discrimination gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transexuals encounter. We have
no hope of ever achieving national equality until we demand that our local
and state leaders respect existing laws by stopping the operations
consciously directed at our community.

In 1935 the number of African Americans lynched in the U.S. "topped out"
at 20. Most years between 1950 and 1960, an average of ten African American
men were lynched per year. In 1996 alone, 21 gays and lesbians were
murdered. The carnage is even bloodier if you add the transgender people
murdered.

Racists justified the murders of black men by claiming they had a
compulsive sexual interest in white women. Likewise, the murders of gays
are justified by the pronouncement that we are "immoral." By flouting the
human rights of gays in general, entrapment by the Detroit Police
contributes to the victimization of local lesbians, transgender persons and
even sexually active heterosexuals.

If the police were really trying to prevent or reduce "public sex," they
could easily do so by using uniformed officers in marked cars. The purpose
of "decoy" operations is not to reduce the target behavior, but to entrap
and stigmatize gays.

There is no need for the gay community to defend "public sex."
Entrapment cases are not about "public sex." If they were - the police
would devote equal resources to the exhibitionism of heterosexuals.
Likewise, the cases are not about responding to "citizen's complaints" about
sex in public. If they were, the police would keep copies of the
complaints. Undercover, anti-sex, covert, police decoy operations undermine
the human rights of everyone, and should be confronted.

Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/transgender Detroiters need to write to the Mayor
and Council demanding that the money used to target gay cruising areas be
cut from the budget. We need to collectively demand that our policy makers
tell the police that they should pay "special attention" to crime of
violence and property damage. Likewise, the City Law Department should be
ordered use better discretion in deciding what cases to push.

Without such action, every single sexually active person is at risk that
the next time some attractive person "comes-on" to you in a bar, restaurant,
park or other place, it could be a cop seeking to turn YOU into a "sex
criminal."
Rudy Serra is an Attorney, a Social Worker, and a member of the Detroit Human Rights Commission. He is a former Oakland County Commissioner, a former Congressional Aide, and a former Staff Attorney for the Michigan Court of Appeals. Serra is a Board member of the Triangle Foundation, and a member of The Open Justice Commission of the State Bar of Michigan.Related Stories from the GayToday Archive:Nightmare in Gage Park
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